BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

Lions in the Balance: Can hunting save the kings of the jungle?

From safeguarding cubs to combating corruption, ecologist Chris Packer lays out the benefits of trophy hunting to lion conservation in his latest book

By Iris Barbier

Can regulated hunting offer the best route to lion conservation? (Image: David Chancellor/Institute)

THE Disney classic The Lion King paints a rosy picture of lion behaviour. Unfortunately, this romanticised image of the ruler of the Serengeti is so pervasive even activists can go soft on lions.

Locals who put up with them daily tell a different story. They speak of people-eating, cattle-killing beasts that carry out infanticide and are worthy of being hunted to extinction, and of gaining manhood by so doing.

In Lions in the Balance, ecologist Craig Packer writes: “Lions need trophy-hunting just as much as trophy-hunting needs lions.” His plan: kill only male lions over the age of 6, so cubs aren’t killed by a lion mating with their mother who seeks to safeguard his own progeny. This is a fresh approach to conservation, where hunting is essential to survival. It might just change the lion behaviour he describes in this sequel to his classic, Into Africa.

As he exposes corruption in Tanzania’s hunting industry and tries to get his plan adopted, diary entries show Packer and his colleagues taking on locals, hunters and megalomaniac politicians in a struggle to balance human needs, a lucrative hunting trade and true Serengeti science.

His brave accounts of blackmail and death threats are alarming. At one point, the book describes a desperate strategy to protect the ecosystem while pacifying the crooked policy-makers. Packer aimed to identify lions’ age by the fullness of their manes and by ear markings, but politicians refused, saying it would restrict the hunt.

The book makes compelling reading as we journey through pioneering science, dodging the influential government fat cats on the way. Packer is completely candid about the “ethics” of those instrumental in the future of the King of the Beasts. Let’s hope someone will listen.

Lions in the Balance: Man-eaters, manes, and men with guns

Craig Packer

University of Chicago Press

This article appeared in print under the headline “Killing the killers”